Post by 3dprintingmeathead on Apr 23, 2017 4:10:58 GMT
I'll work on a better title later...maybe. But I'll go over a few cheap upgrades that I bought that helped me print better, and try to explain why I think they helped.
Please note that these are not affiliate links. I make no money off these, or my videos. Nor do I plan to. I'm pretty sure all the parts I list are quite widely available so feel free to source them wherever you please.
1)16t pulleys. $2 each
I noticed a pretty decent increase in quality with these. Here's a before and after benchy comparison:
Before:
After:
As you can see, the 16t pulley buffed out the ghosting quite noticeably. It also changed my steps/mm from 80 to 100, which reduced the need for microstepping accuracy, aim small miss small is the motto here. It also allows the axis to accelerate in a shorter distance, which smooths out the acceleration, reducing the ringing. Another benefit is that by shortening the lever arm, greater torque is transferred to the belt, which helps prevent skipped steps in both acceleration and deceleration.
The only downside I found to this is the stepper motor noise will change to a higher frequency because more turns are now needed to travel the same difference. It is far from the nails against a chalkboard(oh shit, did I just date myself with that? do they even make chalkboards anymore?) though.
If you choose this upgrade, I recommend a proper idler to go with it, but be warned that I could not fit the y idler in the 3d printed mount.
2)wades kit. $10
I've been over this already. I got this one and printed out the rest of the parts. Totally worth it for me.
3)2mm single start lead screw. $10 each
the printer comes with 2mm 4 start lead screws. Long story short, this means it travels 8mm/revolution. Divide that by 200 steps per revolution, and you get .04mm per step. That means that if the z skips a step for whatever reason, you could be off by .03mm on your layer height, which you will notice.
But what can cause a z motor to skip a step? To get to the bottom of this, let's introduce a scenario. Lets say you're printing a long print at .1mm on a perfectly flat and level bed. Starting from 0, the stepper will have to turn 1.5 steps, and hold it there, for the duration of each layer. Now here's where 1 of 2 things can happen. 1st, the stepper driver, that has to power both steppers on the z, can get hot and overheat. Simple formula for ya, heat=resistance. More resistance drops voltage, which in turn drops amperage, which in turn loses steps. That .1mm can drop to .08mm. But the printer doesn't know it dropped, so it will keep extruding enough filament to fill a .1mm gap. Now, what if this happened at each layer? well, you'd end up with a print 20% shorter and each layer would be over extruded, destroying crispness and leaving an awful texture.
The second thing that can happen is in some firmware, the stepper drivers are instructed to go into standby mode to prevent overheating. This is usually at the 30 second mark, and the amperage drops to 30% usually. I cannot confirm if marlin is programmed to do this, but I know my duet wifi board is(but I can disable that with an m command, or change the time and amperage drop). But the result will be the same as above.
The cheap and easy way to avoid this is to print in .04mm layer height increments, so there's no distance to fall if the microstepping fails to hold position.
Now, the 1 start lead screw moves 2mm/revolution. 2mm/200steps=.01mm/step. that's 4 times the accuracy. This also means that if microstepping fails to hold position, it's error will be 25% of the error of the 8mm screw. This also lets yo chose whatever layer height you want, instead of jumping in .04mm increments.
Now, don't do what I did and order the anti-backlash nuts. The flange is a lot larger and cannot fit on the x mounts. The flange will hit the z guide rail. Also, if you stay with the bowden, you have no need to worry about backlash anyway. Backlash(in 3d printing at least) is when the extruder motor, mounted on the x axis, pulls on the filament roll but pulls the x axis up a little due to the tension on the roll, messing up the layer height. But with a bowden, any force the stepper is pulled back by is just transferred to the frame and not the axis.
4) Sponges. $1
Wait, what? yea, sponges. More specifically foam brillo sponges like these. The thick cheap dollar store kind. Get 4 of them and place them under the feet of the printer. This will noticeably quiet your printer. The difference is actually quite amazing. The reason for this is resonance. Sound travels through solid objects with ease. And tables amplify sound. The sponges are mostly air pockets, which cause sound waves to bounce around the walls of the air pocket. When they pass across an equal and opposite frequency, they cancel each other out, reducing sound. This is also exactly how mufflers work on your car. The brillo is there to spread out the weight a little, as it's more rigid, ensuring more air pockets are open.
But the sound, or any sound, comes from vibration. Vibration travels through objects and can cause the hot end to vibrate, resulting in a textured surface. It may be too small to feel or notice, but for a dollar, and the volume reduction, it's still worth it.
5)Lube. $3-$$$
I've seen heated arguments over which lube to use, but everyone agrees that any lube is better than no lube. I use lithium grease and this will literally last me years of printing. Don't overdo it though. a little dab will do ya. I didn't heed to these warnings and I was cleaning excess grease off everything for a month. A little dab on a paper towel is enough to do all the guide rails. Then put a spot on the lead screw nuts with the axis at 0 and raise it up, it will spread itself. The important part to lube here is the nut, not the screw.
I tried 3 in 1 oil, but it was too runny for my liking and I felt I had to apply it more often, so I just use it to hone my pocket knife and hand pruners.
6) Gluestick. $2
Elmers purple works great here. It has stuck whatever I've printed like a dream. On a cold clean bed, preferably bare aluminum(clean with rubbing alcohol) or glass(clean with glass cleaner), paint the surface with straight stripes with little to no overlap 1 layer in the y axis direction. Then put down another layer in the x axis direction. Then you're done, you shouldn't really see any glue unless you're looking really hard.
I love gluestick because it's super cheap, it's not ruined if the nozzle touches it, it's easy to clean up, it doesn't get everywhere like hairspray does, it leaves the smoothest surface, it's easy to remove the print when done(I hear my new x carrige coming loose now on the cooldown, it sounds kinda like ice cubes cracking in water. Smaller parts literally pop off the bed as they cool), and 1 application can last a good couple of days of printing as long as you remove the print cold and wipe the bed down with alcohol after a day or 2 of printing. Fancy PEI, or kapton tape, painters tape, etc cost more, are ruined by a nozzle touchdown, are a pain to install, and are a pain to remove, and leave a glue residue on the bed you must get rid of with a chemical that won't damage bare aluminum.
That's it for 1 night.
Please note that these are not affiliate links. I make no money off these, or my videos. Nor do I plan to. I'm pretty sure all the parts I list are quite widely available so feel free to source them wherever you please.
1)16t pulleys. $2 each
I noticed a pretty decent increase in quality with these. Here's a before and after benchy comparison:
Before:
After:
As you can see, the 16t pulley buffed out the ghosting quite noticeably. It also changed my steps/mm from 80 to 100, which reduced the need for microstepping accuracy, aim small miss small is the motto here. It also allows the axis to accelerate in a shorter distance, which smooths out the acceleration, reducing the ringing. Another benefit is that by shortening the lever arm, greater torque is transferred to the belt, which helps prevent skipped steps in both acceleration and deceleration.
The only downside I found to this is the stepper motor noise will change to a higher frequency because more turns are now needed to travel the same difference. It is far from the nails against a chalkboard(oh shit, did I just date myself with that? do they even make chalkboards anymore?) though.
If you choose this upgrade, I recommend a proper idler to go with it, but be warned that I could not fit the y idler in the 3d printed mount.
2)wades kit. $10
I've been over this already. I got this one and printed out the rest of the parts. Totally worth it for me.
3)2mm single start lead screw. $10 each
the printer comes with 2mm 4 start lead screws. Long story short, this means it travels 8mm/revolution. Divide that by 200 steps per revolution, and you get .04mm per step. That means that if the z skips a step for whatever reason, you could be off by .03mm on your layer height, which you will notice.
But what can cause a z motor to skip a step? To get to the bottom of this, let's introduce a scenario. Lets say you're printing a long print at .1mm on a perfectly flat and level bed. Starting from 0, the stepper will have to turn 1.5 steps, and hold it there, for the duration of each layer. Now here's where 1 of 2 things can happen. 1st, the stepper driver, that has to power both steppers on the z, can get hot and overheat. Simple formula for ya, heat=resistance. More resistance drops voltage, which in turn drops amperage, which in turn loses steps. That .1mm can drop to .08mm. But the printer doesn't know it dropped, so it will keep extruding enough filament to fill a .1mm gap. Now, what if this happened at each layer? well, you'd end up with a print 20% shorter and each layer would be over extruded, destroying crispness and leaving an awful texture.
The second thing that can happen is in some firmware, the stepper drivers are instructed to go into standby mode to prevent overheating. This is usually at the 30 second mark, and the amperage drops to 30% usually. I cannot confirm if marlin is programmed to do this, but I know my duet wifi board is(but I can disable that with an m command, or change the time and amperage drop). But the result will be the same as above.
The cheap and easy way to avoid this is to print in .04mm layer height increments, so there's no distance to fall if the microstepping fails to hold position.
Now, the 1 start lead screw moves 2mm/revolution. 2mm/200steps=.01mm/step. that's 4 times the accuracy. This also means that if microstepping fails to hold position, it's error will be 25% of the error of the 8mm screw. This also lets yo chose whatever layer height you want, instead of jumping in .04mm increments.
Now, don't do what I did and order the anti-backlash nuts. The flange is a lot larger and cannot fit on the x mounts. The flange will hit the z guide rail. Also, if you stay with the bowden, you have no need to worry about backlash anyway. Backlash(in 3d printing at least) is when the extruder motor, mounted on the x axis, pulls on the filament roll but pulls the x axis up a little due to the tension on the roll, messing up the layer height. But with a bowden, any force the stepper is pulled back by is just transferred to the frame and not the axis.
4) Sponges. $1
Wait, what? yea, sponges. More specifically foam brillo sponges like these. The thick cheap dollar store kind. Get 4 of them and place them under the feet of the printer. This will noticeably quiet your printer. The difference is actually quite amazing. The reason for this is resonance. Sound travels through solid objects with ease. And tables amplify sound. The sponges are mostly air pockets, which cause sound waves to bounce around the walls of the air pocket. When they pass across an equal and opposite frequency, they cancel each other out, reducing sound. This is also exactly how mufflers work on your car. The brillo is there to spread out the weight a little, as it's more rigid, ensuring more air pockets are open.
But the sound, or any sound, comes from vibration. Vibration travels through objects and can cause the hot end to vibrate, resulting in a textured surface. It may be too small to feel or notice, but for a dollar, and the volume reduction, it's still worth it.
5)Lube. $3-$$$
I've seen heated arguments over which lube to use, but everyone agrees that any lube is better than no lube. I use lithium grease and this will literally last me years of printing. Don't overdo it though. a little dab will do ya. I didn't heed to these warnings and I was cleaning excess grease off everything for a month. A little dab on a paper towel is enough to do all the guide rails. Then put a spot on the lead screw nuts with the axis at 0 and raise it up, it will spread itself. The important part to lube here is the nut, not the screw.
I tried 3 in 1 oil, but it was too runny for my liking and I felt I had to apply it more often, so I just use it to hone my pocket knife and hand pruners.
6) Gluestick. $2
Elmers purple works great here. It has stuck whatever I've printed like a dream. On a cold clean bed, preferably bare aluminum(clean with rubbing alcohol) or glass(clean with glass cleaner), paint the surface with straight stripes with little to no overlap 1 layer in the y axis direction. Then put down another layer in the x axis direction. Then you're done, you shouldn't really see any glue unless you're looking really hard.
I love gluestick because it's super cheap, it's not ruined if the nozzle touches it, it's easy to clean up, it doesn't get everywhere like hairspray does, it leaves the smoothest surface, it's easy to remove the print when done(I hear my new x carrige coming loose now on the cooldown, it sounds kinda like ice cubes cracking in water. Smaller parts literally pop off the bed as they cool), and 1 application can last a good couple of days of printing as long as you remove the print cold and wipe the bed down with alcohol after a day or 2 of printing. Fancy PEI, or kapton tape, painters tape, etc cost more, are ruined by a nozzle touchdown, are a pain to install, and are a pain to remove, and leave a glue residue on the bed you must get rid of with a chemical that won't damage bare aluminum.
That's it for 1 night.
